Product guide

What's in the app, surface by surface — with a short tip on how to use each feature. Concrete, not a pitch.

Capture

There are four ways to start a recording. Pick whichever one matches the situation.

• Tap the mic (EchoFAB). The round mic button at the bottom-right of the Today tab. One tap opens a 30-second timed recording sheet with a visible countdown and an Extend button if you need more time.
  Tip: the EchoFAB also appears on Apple Watch as the round button on the home screen — same behavior.
• Long-press the EchoFAB → Echo. Holding the mic button starts an Echo session — a rolling 30-second audio buffer with a Live Activity in the Dynamic Island. Use it when you want retroactive capture: in meetings, on walks, during interviews. Tap the bookmark pill (or the Live Activity itself) to save the last 30 seconds as a moment without ending the session. End the session whenever you're done; saved bookmarks land in your timeline as separate moments.
  Tip: bookmarks remember where you were when you tapped, not where you are when the session ends — handy for long walks.
• Action Button. On iPhone 15 Pro and later, open iOS Settings → Action Button → choose Shortcut → pick the "Record a Postcard moment" shortcut. After that, one press of the Action Button starts a 30-second recording.
  Tip: works from the lock screen and from any app.
• Siri. "Hey Siri, record a Postcard moment" starts the same 30-second timed recording.

Every recording is transcribed on-device with Apple's Speech framework and given a one-line caption by Apple Intelligence. Postcard also attaches context the phone already knows — where you were, what was on your calendar around that time, whether you were in a workout — as metadata chips on the moment. None of it leaves the device.

Today timeline

The home tab shows the moments you've captured today (and, as you scroll, recent days), grouped with timestamps, durations, transcript previews, and AI captions.

• Wordmark bar. The "Postcard" wordmark at the top of Today doubles as a launcher. Tap the mic icon next to it for a one-tap voice Ask — it jumps to the Ask tab and starts listening so you can just speak your question.
• Streak chip. Once you've captured on two or more consecutive days, a small streak chip appears under the wordmark. Skip a day and it resets — the goal is a gentle nudge, not a guilt trip.
• Moment row. Tap any row to open the full moment view: title, full transcript, on-device summary, waveform with playback controls, and the action bar.

Tip: long-press a moment in the list to pin it; pinned moments stay at the top of Today regardless of date.

Moment detail — what each control does

• Title. Postcard generates one. Tap the ⋯ menu top-right → Rename moment to set your own.
• Waveform + transport. Tap play, skip back 10s, or jump to the start. Playback speed is on the transport row.
• Context chips. Place, weather, calendar event, workout — whatever Postcard pulled in automatically.
• Transcript / Summary tabs. Toggle between the full transcript and the on-device AI summary.
• Photo attachment. Inline in the header. Tap to add a photo from your library or take one with the camera (Pro).
• Action bar (bottom). Share · Pin · Add to task (Pro) · Add to calendar (Pro).
• ⋯ menu (top-right). Rename moment · Mark private / Unmark private · Delete.

Tip: "Mark private" hides the moment from Search results and Ask answers. Use the "New moments are private" toggle in Settings → Privacy if you'd rather everything start private and only opt selected moments back in.

Search

The Search tab does keyword matching out of the box — type a word and matching transcripts surface immediately.

Postcard Pro unlocks search by meaning (semantic search). "The offsite plan" surfaces the same moment as "the kickoff with Sarah," even though you didn't use the same words when you recorded.

Tip: the semantic index builds in the background after the first few moments. You'll get a one-time notification ("Search by meaning is ready") when it's good to go.

Ask

The Ask tab is a private Q&A over your own moments. Ask "what did I learn this week?" or "what did I say about the move to Lisbon?" — Postcard retrieves the most relevant moments via on-device embeddings, then hands them to Apple Intelligence with your question. The answer streams in with the source moments cited beneath it; one tap reads or plays any source moment in full.

• Voice input. Tap the mic in the composer for live, on-device dictation while you speak. Tap stop and the question sends.
• Follow-up chips. After each answer, Postcard suggests a few natural follow-up questions you can tap to continue the thread.
• Multi-turn within a session. Conversations carry context inside one Ask session — "tell me more about that" works. Closing Ask clears history (by design — there's no persisted Ask log).
• Siri. "Hey Siri, ask Postcard what I said about the offsite" works without opening the app.

Free tier: 3 questions per rolling 7-day window. Postcard Pro: unlimited.

Tip: the one-tap voice Ask shortcut on the Today tab wordmark is the fastest path — tap it, speak your question, get an answer without ever typing.

Apple Watch

The Watch app is built for capture-first.

• Tap the mic on the Watch home screen to record a quick moment, stored locally and synced to your iPhone as soon as both devices are in range.
• Long-press the mic → Echo (Pro) starts an Echo session on the Watch — same rolling-30s bookmark pattern as on iPhone, kept entirely on the wrist.
• Action Button on Apple Watch Ultra: configure it in the Watch's Settings → Action Button → pick the Postcard capture action. One press starts a recording without needing to open the app.
• Double-Tap on Apple Watch Series 9 and later: when Postcard is on screen (or in a complication), Double-Tap starts a recording. Configure it in the Watch's Settings → Gestures.
• Complications. Add the "Capture" complication to your watch face for one-tap recording from any face shape. Pro users also get a rich "Recent moment" complication that shows the latest summary snippet.
• Smart Stack widget. A "Quiet day" widget surfaces on the Smart Stack when your timeline is empty in the afternoon, nudging you to capture.
• Post-workout prompt (Pro): when you end a HealthKit workout on the Watch, Postcard pings you a few minutes later to capture how it went.
• Today preview list (Pro): scroll your recent moments on the wrist and tap to play their audio without reaching for the phone.

Tip: Watch recordings transfer to the paired iPhone over WatchConnectivity as soon as the two devices are in range — no internet round-trip, no iCloud staging.

Sharing

From any moment, tap Share (bottom-left of the action bar) to bring up the share menu. There are five share variants — each one packages the moment differently:

• Send to a friend ✨ — the fastest path to iMessage. Postcard renders the moment as a beautiful image (theme-aware) and opens Messages.app with the postcard image pre-attached. One tap of the blue arrow and it's sent. Image only — no audio.
• Postcard — the same rendered postcard image, but routed through the standard iOS Share Sheet so you can send it anywhere: AirDrop, Mail, save to Photos, post to social, etc.
• Postcard file (with audio) — exports a self-contained .postcard bundle that includes the audio, photo, transcript, sender name, and place. Recipients with Postcard installed get a rich Quick Look preview and a one-tap "Open in Postcard" to save it into their own timeline. Recipients without the app see a Quick Look preview and a friendly install link. This option is hidden for moments that don't have audio.
• Audio recording — exports the raw audio file (m4a). Useful for transcription pipelines or just keeping a copy.
• Text summary — copies/shares the one-line AI summary as plain text.
• Full transcript — copies/shares the entire transcript as plain text.

Sending postcards from the iMessage app drawer. Postcard also installs as a native iMessage app. Inside any thread, tap the apps icon → Postcard → pick a recent moment → Insert. The recipient sees the postcard as a rich bubble in the thread.

Free vs. Pro on sharing. Sharing the image variants (Send to a friend, Postcard, Audio recording, Text summary, Full transcript) is unlimited on the free tier. Sharing the full audio bundle (Postcard file (with audio) and the iMessage extension) is capped at 10 sends per calendar month on free, unlimited on Pro. Receiving postcards is always free for everyone — that's the viral hook.

Tip: Apple's iMessage handles delivery end-to-end — there are no Postcard servers in the loop. The bundle file is self-contained, and we don't see who you sent it to.

Themes

Postcards render against a theme. The default Cream & Persimmon is free. Postcard Pro unlocks five more:

• Slate — cool, neutral, editorial.
• Night — true dark, high-contrast.
• Forest — earthy, mossy, grounded.
• Paper — clean, warm, classic.
• Custom — your own photo as a faint backdrop behind the text.

How to change: Settings → Postcard → Theme. The chosen theme applies to all shared postcards until you change it.

Notifications

Postcard sends only local notifications — there is no APNs server, no third party, no "marketing pushes." Every notification fires from on-device rules. Each type has its own toggle in Settings, and each requests its permission only the first time you turn it on.

Free tier:

• On this day — surfaces a moment from a week, month, or year ago at a time you pick. Settings → Notifications → On this day.
• Search by meaning is ready — fires once, automatically, after the semantic index finishes building.
• Gentle reminders — at most once a week, only after several days quiet. A soft "still here?" nudge.

Postcard Pro — Smart prompts:

• End-of-day reflection — fires at a time you pick (default 9 pm). Settings → Notifications → End-of-day reflection.
• Post-meeting — a few minutes after a calendar event ends, nudges you to capture takeaways while they're fresh.
• Post-workout — a HealthKit observer on the Watch nudges you a few minutes after a workout ends.
• Place prompts — geofenced nudges when you arrive at a saved place (Home, your office, a favorite café). Up to 20 places, with a 75–500 m radius each. Settings → Notifications → Place prompts → Manage places.

Tip: the master "Notifications" toggle at the top of the section disables everything in one tap if you ever want quiet, without losing your per-type preferences.

Privacy

Postcard has no servers. Recordings, transcripts, summaries, search, Ask answers, and notifications all run on the device. There's no analytics SDK, no third-party tracker, no telemetry, no iCloud sync of moment content. The only network call the app makes is to forward the feedback you type in Settings — to the developer's inbox, only when you tap Send.

Per-moment privacy controls (⋯ → Mark private) hide a moment from Search and Ask. The "New moments are private" master toggle in Settings → Privacy makes every future capture private by default.

For sharing, when you share a postcard you choose what goes in — audio, photo, place, transcript — through the share variants above. The full policy is at /postcard/privacy.

Tip: Settings → Privacy → "Ask sees received postcards" controls whether postcards shared to you can be retrieved by Ask. Default off.

Postcard Pro

Pro comes two ways — a $3.99/month subscription or a $19.99 one-time lifetime purchase. Both unlock the same features:

• Unlimited Ask. The free 3-per-week preview turns into no cap.
• Search by meaning. Semantic, on-device.
• Photo attachments on moments.
• Add to Reminders & Add to Calendar. One-tap from a moment's action bar.
• Smart prompts. End-of-day reflection, Post-meeting, Post-workout, Place prompts.
• All postcard themes. Slate, Night, Forest, Paper, Custom — plus the default Cream & Persimmon.
• Unlimited audio sharing. No monthly cap on Postcard file (with audio) sends.
• Watch Echo. Long-press the mic on the Watch for a rolling-buffer Echo session.
• Watch extras. Today preview list (scroll recent moments on the wrist) and the rich "Recent moment" complication.

The free tier is genuinely useful — Pro is for people who use Postcard daily and want the long-tail features.

How to upgrade: Settings → Postcard Pro → tap the Upgrade button, then pick the monthly or lifetime plan. A 14-day free trial unlocks everything first. Purchases restore via the same screen on a new device, and subscribers can manage or cancel from Settings → Postcard Pro → Manage subscription.

Feedback

Settings → Send feedback opens a short form: pick a category, type a message, tap send. Everything goes straight to the developer's inbox — useful especially for translation tweaks while the localization rollout is fresh.

Languages

Postcard ships fully translated in 10 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese. Transcription and on-device AI work in any language Apple Intelligence supports on your device.

Tip: Postcard follows your iOS system language. To override just for Postcard, use iOS Settings → Postcard → Language.

Compatibility

iPhone running iOS 26.0 or later. Apple Watch running watchOS 11.0 or later. Ask and on-device captions require a device that supports Apple Intelligence, with the feature enabled in iOS Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri.

Postcard runs on iPad in iPhone-compatibility mode — a dedicated iPad layout is on the roadmap but not in 1.0.